Middle School Biology and Anatomy: A Trip Around the Human Body

👋 INTRODUCTION 👋

"A Trip Around the Human Body" will take students on a journey through the human body's major organ systems! Together, we'll explore how different organs work, how the workings of these systems keeps us alive, and why the human body is so complicated and beautiful! 

In general, students will begin to understand how the body maintains homeostasis and how organs are grouped together. Before diving into specific body systems, we'll discuss the hierarchy of life as well (how cells form tissues, tissues form organs... etc)! From there, this is NOT a basic human body course. Not only will students learn basic anatomy, but I'll be pulling from my college curriculum to show how the body works physiologically at a more sophisticated level.

The organ systems we'll cover in this course are... 
- The circulatory system
- The immune system
- The lymphatic system
- The respiratory system
- The nervous system
- The digestive system
- The muscular system
- The skeletal system
- The endocrine system

🧠 REQUIREMENTS 🧠

No prior experience in Biology or organ systems is needed for this course.

It's important to make sure that your learner has room to grow in this course! Your student may be too ADVANCED for this course if they understand 3 or more of the following topics: 

- The organ systems of the body use negative feedback and positive feedback loops to maintain homeostasis
- The hierarchy of life (cells to tissues, tissues to organs, etc...)
- The circulatory system's parts and functions including: types of blood vessels, parts of blood, structure of the heart, oxygenated/deoxygenated blood
- The immune system's parts and functions including: external immunity, macrophages, natural killer cells, and the inflammatory response
- The lymphatic system's parts and functions including: the lymph nodes, lymph as a substance, the tonsils, thymus, and spleen
- The respiratory system's parts and functions including: parts of the lungs including the bronchioles and alveoli, diaphragm contraction, cilia in the bronchi, inhalation/exhalation
- The nervous system's parts and functions including: the structure of neurons, electrical signaling between nerves, parts of the brain (matter)
-  The urinary system's parts and functions including: kidney filtration, parts of urine, muscular organs of the urinary system, hydration and urine color
- The digestive system's parts and functions including: the molecular breakdown of food, types of digestion, and all the organs including the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, liver, and pancreas
- The muscular system's parts and functions including: types of muscle, contraction and relaxation, muscle building, exercise and lactic acid 
- The skeletal system's parts and functions including: parts of the bone, types of joints, bone cells and their jobs
- The endocrine system's parts and functions including: the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, adrenal glands, how hormones get into cells with receptors

🥼 WHAT CAN I EXPECT? 🥼

This class has a live lecture-style session every week for 12 weeks. These live sessions are interactive, but the level of interactivity mostly depends on student initiative. I do not "cold-call" or force students to participate. This is a great fit if your student is nervous or anxious about speaking in class! For those more interactive students, they are encouraged to participate in 2 ways: 

- Using our open chat box (as long as class rules are maintained)
- Raising their virtual hand on Zoom and waiting for me to call on them before unmuting

I do my best to maintain an open, loving, and positive space for students of all backgrounds to grow. I view each section of mine as a community that feeds off of each other. Because of this, I have 3 class rules that I expect all students to follow: 

1. Be a good "Zoom citizen." This means that students are expected to...
- avoid spamming the chat box with emoticons or words.
- wait their turn to speak and avoid interrupting their classmates.
- keep their microphone muted when they are not speaking to prevent background noise.
- avoid disrupting the class by drawing on the screen or trying to sabotage the Zoom call.

2. Be kind to everyone. This means that students are expected to...
- speak to other students with respect and kindness.
- avoid teasing or bullying other students. 

3. Be a supportive classmate and enhance the learning environment. This means that students are expected to...
- keep the class relatively on-topic and not try to distract classmates.
- use the chat box responsibly and help to keep the class on track.
- in general, come to class with a positive attitude and the willingness to be a part of our community.

If there is an issue with these rules or if your student violates one of these guidelines, I will usually give them a subtle warning during class time. If it continues beyond this, I will remove them from the session.

Students can bring their workbooks to class each day if they prefer to complete the homework assignments early or take notes. Sometimes, we go over previous homework assignments and students can check their work. However, there is no "note-taking" requirement. 

When students come into the live session, there is usually a "Welcome" slide to greet them and some music playing in the background. Students are free to interact with each other using the chat box as long as they maintain a positive space before class begins.

My teaching style is relaxed, engaging and upbeat! I teach using drawings, videos, simulations, and slides! There will be a 5-minute break halfway through the session for students to use the bathroom or grab a snack.

After each session, students can expect to receive all the notes and materials I used during class in the Outschool classroom. Answers to homework assignments will also be posted in the classroom. All recordings are posted on the Outschool classroom. 

 🔬FULL SCHEDULE🔬

DAY 1: WHAT ARE ORGAN SYSTEMS?
- Course introduction, rules, and expectations
- How is the human body organized? 
- What are cells, tissues, and organs? 

DAY 2: THE NERVOUS SYSTEM
- The 5 senses
- Neurons and nerve cell function
- Synapses and neurotransmitters

DAY 3: THE MUSCULAR SYSTEM
- Muscle fibers and muscle movement
- Contraction and relaxation
- Myosin heads and the contraction cycle (simplified)

DAY 4: THE SKELETAL SYSTEM
- Some key bones of the human body 
- Structure of the bone 
- Bone marrow and bone cells

DAY 5: THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
- Types of blood vessels
- Parts of the heart 
- Oxygenated/deoxygenated blood
- Parts of blood

DAY 6: THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM
- Parts of the lungs and general respiratory system
- Oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange
- Alveoli and surfactant

DAY 7: THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
- Intestinal cells 
- Chemical and mechanical digestion
- Stomach acid

DAY 8: THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
- Definition of hormones
- Cortisol
- Adrenaline
- The structure of glands

DAY 9: CASE STUDY: THE HORMONES OF HUNGER
- Connection between hunger/thirst and the digestive system
- Digestive hormones and regulation: ghrelin, leptin, cholestekinin

DAY 10: THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
- Innate immunity 
- The inflammatory response
- Macrophages and NK cells

DAY 11: THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM
- Lymph nodes
- Definition of lymph 
- Lymph filtration and connection to the immune system

DAY 12: REVIEW GAME AND COURSE CLOSE-OUT
- Students will play a cumulative review game that concludes the course!

🚪 REASONS WHY PEOPLE DISENROLL EARLY 🚪

I am very fortunate on Outschool to be blessed with great ratings and good experiences with students. Just like all teachers do, I rarely encounter situations where some parents pull their students out of my classes early because there is a misunderstanding or a conflict. To avoid this, here are some of the most popular reasons why this occurs:

1. My classes are on the larger side and they are not meant to be "hands-on." 

I do not mention any "hands-on" activities in my descriptions, but sometimes parents are disappointed when they find that my classes are not one-on-one and they don't include experiments of any kind. I understand that some students need one-on-one attention, but I urge you to look elsewhere on Outschool for some great private lessons from other great teachers. My classes are an interactive lecture-style and they are very much a group setting where a student's participation is dependent on their own initiative. I do provide one-on-one help with the use of Outschool messenger if students need help.

2. I do not discipline students' behavior and expect them to know how to conduct themselves.

In general, I treat all my students like young adults. I expect that students know how to behave in an online classroom and that students are in my classes to learn and be productive classroom members. If your learner needs extra help or assistance with paying attention, being disruptive, or acting out, I will not spend lesson time teaching them how to behave and instead probably remove them from the class. Parents tend to love the amount of freedom I give to my students and it typically works out great. If your learner cannot maturely handle this freedom, there are many great teachers on Outschool who maintain a stricter environment!

3. I do not censor or silence students of specific backgrounds, identities, cultures, or orientations.

My main focus as a teacher is to create an environment where students feel accepted, strong, and loved. My zero-tolerance bullying policy and other classroom guidelines reflect this. I also think it is extremely important for students to interact with each other in the online classroom environment because many of my students are homeschooled and they struggle to make friends. To help with these goals, during certain periods of the class I allow my students to chat freely with one another and get to know each other as humans. This might mean that some students share their pronouns or identities. I do not and will not censor specific orientations or identities from being discussed as every type of student is welcome in my classroom and deserve to be supported. I do censor speech that violates our classroom guidelines; anything that is hateful, harmful, disturbing, or vulgar does warrant action.